The holiness of Christ (last part)

What sin? You know, you and I, sometimes we don't sin, but we think sin. That right? It comes into our mind. Listen to what the Bible says, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

And in every aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was absolutely pure. He was holy. He was harmless.

Now, again, that's a different word. It doesn't really mean that he didn't harm people, though he didn't do that. Although, you know, in John 2, he had that rope made with cords, and if he'd hit someone, he certainly would have hurt them, but he didn't.

He just chased them out of his father's house. Now, even though the Jews had really desecrated the temple and its surroundings, the Lord Jesus was teaching him a lesson that there are things that are not allowed in house of God. You know, we have to learn, child of God, that although the assembly is not the article house of God, it is in character house of God, and holiness becometh God's house.

And if not only we should be separated unto him, there should be a religious righteousness, a religious holiness. There should be a rightness about our conduct in the house of God. The word gives the idea of being without guile.

Now, one of the great things when you meet someone and they're without guile, they're transparent. They're not trying to hide something. When you saw the Lord Jesus, he displayed to you his feelings, his thoughts.

He didn't, and we're so guilty of it, we appear to be one thing and we're another. We think something, but we don't show it, and so we smile when we're really not smiling. We're saying hello to someone, how are you doing, glad to see you, and we're not.

The Lord Jesus was never like that. The Lord Jesus, he called a spade a spade. When he spoke to the Pharisees, he says, oh, you generate, he called them, he says, you're whited sepulchers.

And he, on one occasion, he really goes into what they are before him, and he was absolutely without guile. There was nothing twisted in his thinking or in his mind. He was, another word could be sincerity.

When the Lord Jesus said something, he meant it. He was sincere in his actions, in his goings, and so when you get in John chapter 11, he whom thou lovest is sick. Everyone knew about it, that he loved this family at Bethany.

And the Spirit of God says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. The people knew that the Lord Jesus loved that one. He was holy, he was harmless, but child of God, he was undefiled.

Now, as you read through your Old Testament scriptures, you learn that in Numbers chapter 19, there's a red heifer, and the red heifer was burned with a special wood and cedar and hyssop, if I recall. And then the ashes were taken up. They're stored outside the camp.

They're going to be kept. And when someone is defiled, there has to be the sprinkling of the water of purification. There has to be certain things done to maintain their purity and their ability to move amongst the people of God again.

We're subject to defilement. Now, you know as well as I do that sometimes you're associated with certain groups, and you just feel absolutely defiled. All right? You just feel, I'm so glad to get back among the people of God.

The things that, just the people or whatever it is, through business or something you're associated with. I remember I went into a business meeting one day, and our manager, I worked for Manitoba Hydro, and our manager from up north, every second word was a swear word. And I just felt, you know, it wasn't my place to remonstrate with him, but I felt like doing it just so bad.

Listen, the Lord Jesus was never contaminated with sin. He could touch the leper. He would never become a leper.

He could move amidst defilement, and he maintained his absolute purity. He was uncorrupted in a corruptible world. I heard this morning we're going to have a body that's going to be incorruptible.

No, my body's dying, so's yours. The blood cells in your body, they're dying, and they're replacing themselves, but I'm bound for death. That's what my body is.

It's corruptible. I'm going to have a body that's going to be changed. And we mentioned this morning in Philippians chapter 3, we're going to have a body like unto his body of glory.

That's an incorruptible body. The Lord Jesus was absolutely incorruptible, whether it's in his body, or whether it's in his mind. He could never be anything else but the absolutely pure Son of God.

But then he's, now you're authorized. You have to be careful here now. The authorize says, separate from sinners.

And yet the accusation against the Lord Jesus was that he mingled with sinners. So how could the Spirit of God say separate from sinners, and he mingled with them? The word actually carries the thought of separated from sinners. It's not his life on earth that's really in view.

It's his resurrection or his ascension, any one of the two. He's separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens. That's why we were thinking today of the coming again of the Lord Jesus, and even in the remembrance of himself.

We mentioned this morning what the Lord Jesus says in John 14, because I live, ye shall live also. The promise of life in the living Christ, the assurity, the surety of life is because he lives. He's separated from sinners.

Oh what a day that was. Listen to him in John 10. I have the right to lay down my life, and I have the authority, the power to take it again.

And he rose up out from among the dead. He left them alone. He rose, and he's seated on a throne.

We mentioned yesterday four thrones in Hebrews, and the last two in chapter 8. One is the character and quality of the throne. It's a throne of majesty. In chapter 12, verse 1, sitting on the throne of God, sitting on the throne of God, and we're going to see him.

He's going to take us to be with himself. We went through the book of Revelation. It took about a year, but you know, it was just wonderful.

Our purpose was to see Christ and learn of him. A few years ago, we did the tabernacle. It took again about a year or maybe a year and a half.

I don't know. But we made our object this. We're going to see Christ.

Child of God, when you read your Bible, what does the Lord Jesus say? We heard already in Luke chapter 24, when he had the two on the road to Emmaus, what did he do? He started at Moses and the prophets, and he taught them the things concerning himself. We read that this morning in the house. The brother Jim read it to us.

Have you ever thought of it? Way back in the book of Genesis, just winding his way through. And for over two hours on that pathway, he told them about himself in the Old Testament that we hardly ever read. And he went to those white pages in your Bible and mine, you know, Zechariah.

Have you read Zechariah? Have you read Haggai? Have you read Emmaus? Those books. We read Isaiah and we know we're going to find the Lord in Isaiah. And we read the Psalms.

And then he comes and he meets the disciples when they're gathering. And he says, when I was with you, I taught you. What did he teach them? He taught them about himself.

What then? In the books of Moses, and the prophets. Now he says, and then the Psalms. And for three and a half years, the Lord Jesus has taught the disciples things concerning himself.

You know, I'm looking to get to heaven. I think, I think we're going to have Bible readings. I'll need them to explain to us all those difficulties and obscure things that I find in this book.

And it's going to be concerning himself. He's holy. He's harmless.

He's guileless. He's incorruptible. He's undefiled.

He's separated from sinners. He's made higher than the heavens.